Tuesday, March 05, 2013

RPI - Yeast: Soft Pretzels

The Lowdown:

Pretzels are memory makers. Well, maybe they are memory enhancers. The memories of circuses, fairs, hockey games (or any sports game), concerts, rodeos, carnivals; and of course, Oktoberfest are all heightened by the food and beverage we consume during them. This theory isn't just related to cheap snacks during the aforementioned events. It can be a great meal you ate on a trip that defined the entire vacation. It can be a picnic on the beach that made your summer that much better. It can be a wine that always reminds you of a past anniversary. It can be an aroma emanating from a kitchen that reminds you of home. It can be a shot that ruined your birthday... like say a Bacardi 151 muff diver (I'll get my revenge for that soon enough).

In some unfortunate cases, these same events can be remembered by what came up. Back from the dead food. Food Zombies..? Once good food items coming back to life as an undead, decrepit version of a once loved meal. No need to over think this, it was just merely an after(life) thought.

Back to the events. One thing that all of these events have in common is the infamous pretzel -- salty, warm, doughy, and just plain classic. Sometimes it can even be your saviour when you've had one too many overpriced beers at a sporting event. Overpriced is an understatement. We've all seen them revolving around the heat lamp in those weird oscillating ovens. Some of you may have even wondered just how much salt can they actually fit onto one pretzel.

The fact is, we've all waited way too long in a line-up to get a hold of one of these salty treats. This is where this story starts. This installment of RPI, as the title states, is yeast. I was recently at a hockey game waiting in one of the said line-ups. Taking light years to get to the counter I starting thinking about how to make a pretzel at home. This is just a classic "one thing lead to another and here we are" story. Sorry to talk in bullet points, but I'm tired of typing. Farewell. My friends. Ciao.